Two Caversham based residents have taken on a gruelling challenge while travelling the world on two wheels.
Richard Mason and Kat Wilkinson’s challenge of cycling around the world for two years has them cover 17,000 miles in total in 29 different countries.
The pair left Caversham in May 2022 and are due to return to Reading this month for a pit stop before setting off again.
So far the two have cycled in the UK, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Singapore, Australia, Indonesia, Nepal, Vietnam, Albania, Montenegro, Italy, Tunisia and Ireland.
“The trip has been both physically and mentally challenging, dealing with mountain ranges, numerous languages and cycling in temperatures of 45 degrees,” said Richard.
“Our favourite stretch of road was cycling from Sydney to Cairns in Australia on the east coast, which was a leg of over 2,000 miles.
“We’d never previously contemplated Australia but the extreme heat and humidity of cycling for months in South East Asia started to take its toll – we needed a change.
“We camped alongside kangaroos and had possums invading our tent.
“One of the things we’re most proud of is cycling to the top of a mountain range in Nepal so that we could get a view of Everest.
“It was one of the hardest things we’ve ever done, but we saw the sun rise over the Himalayas which made it all worthwhile.
“One of the other highlights was reaching the top of a volcano in Indonesia, where we were able to ride on the off-road trails amongst the black lava.”
